Christmas Future
by moonswirl
Summary: Gleekathon, days 1527, 1529, 1531, 1533: One Christmas, Trinity finds itself stranded out of town, when a story on the news rearranges their plans. - Trinity series - Christmas story 3 of 3
1. Like Robin Hood

_Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a 2nd cycle, and then a 3rd, 4th, etc through 72nd cycle. Now cycle 73!_

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**"Christmas Future"**  
**(Third of three four-part Christmas stories)**

**1. Like Robin Hood**  
**(future) Quinn, Santana/Brittany**  
**Trinity series**  
**_(all series now listed under the communities tab in my profile)_**

The job was done. Their target had been hit, the items retrieved, and with their equipment all packed and ready to return home, Trinity was all set to fly off and never be found. But then something got in the way, maybe a 'holiday intervention,' as they would later decide. It was December 22nd, and a freak storm had delayed their flight. It would be one more day in town at the least, which had forced them to consider their options. The most important thing at this point was to get the items they had just stolen to find their way to their destination without being intercepted.

When Santana had declared herself able to get them there in a rental car, both Brittany and Quinn had stared at her as though she'd sprouted five horns and a fish tail. That she'd managed to convince them was a miracle of similar proportions, but that was what had brought them to passing through a city, on December 23rd, and stopping in to a restaurant for warmth and a solid lunch.

"Next time, let's just wait for there to be another flight," Quinn had grumbled as they found a booth.

"Next time, don't get us sent into Frosty's toilet in the middle of a blizzard," Santana countered.

"I wonder if they put marshmallows in their hot chocolate," Brittany read through the menu.

They'd been quiet for a few minutes after that, each one of them scanning their own menu. It was in this hush that they had caught on to the voice of a female reporter on the television in the corner. If the snow swirling around her didn't make it hard enough for her to be seen and heard clearly enough, the fact that she was bundled up so tightly didn't help. Even then, they heard her report.

A children's home in a neighboring small town had been forced to evacuate after the storm had gone and caused a fire. No one had been killed, though several of the children had been injured and were now in the hospital.

"That's so sad," Brittany had commented with a look in her eyes like she was about to burst into tears.

"They'll be okay," Santana tried to reassure her.

"I know, but it's Christmas. It shouldn't be sad like this."

"We know," Quinn reached for her hand across the table.

"Couldn't we, well…" Brittany looked around the restaurant, to make sure no one would be listening. "Couldn't we do something to help them?" Santana and Quinn shared a look.

"What kind of something? We can't exactly conjure up a Santa. Between the three of us we don't have a fat man, or a jolly one at that," Santana pointed out. This was true, but it didn't stop an idea from flashing on to Brittany. "What?" Santana looked at her. "What did I say?"

"That job, last year, the client, didn't he offer to pay us…"

"And Quinn said he didn't have to because she felt bad," Santana nodded.

"He did say if we ever changed our mind…" Quinn started, and Brittany beamed.

"Change your mind, Quinn, please change your mind."

"What for?"

"We take the money, we go to that toy store we passed on the way here, load up, then go see those kids. It won't make up for everything, but it'll be something, to cheer them up," she explained, her giddiness spilling over. "Don't you guys want to do something else for a change? We'll still help people, just littler ones," she nodded. "We can't look away, not on Christmas." It was easy to forget how much she loved the holiday when they were going by code names and the rest, but now here they were.

"What about the client? You know, the last one, who's still waiting?" Quinn was also very aware of their location. The restaurant may have been nearly empty due to the storm, but that could be considered to only make matters worse.

"We can ship it. I know a guy," Santana spoke after a few seconds.

"And who's this guy? Please tell me it's not the same 'guy' as last July," Quinn gave her a pointed stare.

"Please," Santana chuckled, then, "Anyway he's in prison now. No, this is another guy. He'll get the job done."

"Does that mean you're in?" Brittany sat up.

"Was there any doubt?" Santana gave her a smile, and Brittany beamed back before turning to Quinn again. It all came down to her and that call. She let out a sigh and got up. They watched her go up to the counter and ask one of the waitresses if she could use their phone. It was almost just as well that cell service wasn't working. They couldn't leave any trace.

For what must have been close to fifteen minutes, Santana and Brittany had watched from a distance as Quinn spoke on the phone. The waitresses were starting to look impatient, but then finally she'd hung up, thanked them, and returned to the table.

"So?" Santana asked.

"He'll have wired the money by the time we're done eating here," Quinn told them, and Brittany had to keep herself from cheering too loud. "And I might be able to help with another thing."

"What's that?" Brittany asked.

"I have my share of I.O.U.s hanging around, that's all I'll say for now. I've been driving for hours, can we have one meal without talking about work?" she asked, just before they were brought the two coffees and one hot chocolate with extra marshmallows.

After leaving the restaurant, they had seen to shipping the items they'd retrieved the day before, and once those were gone, they had checked into a hotel room, the better to organize themselves on this unexpected mission of theirs. Brittany had been right, it would be different. It would call on them using certain skills in ways they hadn't before, but again as Brittany had pointed out, it would be worth it, in the spirit of Christmas, to bring some much needed joy.

TO BE CONTINUED (SATURDAY)


	2. On the Prowl

**"Christmas Future"**

**2. On the Prowl**

Quinn's contact had come through, and although she wouldn't confirm or deny it, Santana and Brittany had to guess maybe she had confided in him the reason for her change of mind, because when they saw the amount of money they had been sent, they knew it was much more than the amount he had wanted to give them at the end of the job where he had been their client. Either way, they weren't going to focus on the details. They had less than two days to get things done, and they had no time to waste.

Santana was always about getting information they'd need, and that was what she did here, too. She would stay in the hotel room, set up with her computer, and she would find what she could on the children: the number, genders, ages… As soon as she'd have anything to report, she would pass it on to Quinn and Brittany. They had a much different thing to do for the day, and as frantic as Brittany was about the prospect, Quinn had to keep her minded.

They had quickly realized, once they walked into the store Brittany had pointed out earlier, that they had nearly forgotten something very important. It was not, although that did come to factor very strongly in the end, that the stores, especially a toy store in their case, were packed tight with last minute shoppers. Quinn had nearly lost it on a mother who'd tried to rip an action figure out of her hands. What they'd actually come to realize was that if their plan was to remain unnoticed as they usually did, then they couldn't do all their purchases in this one store. That would get them noticed.

One more call to Santana back at the hotel had gotten them a list of addresses for every toy store, department store, any store that might be a place they'd want to go. As treacherous as the roads had proven themselves to be, it had not stopped the shoppers, and it would not stop them either.

They would have to make a few trips to the hotel, to unload the car and go back to continue their purchases. Already this was telling them they'd need to trade in their car rental for something much more accommodating before they went to the town in question. But that was another matter. For now, they were running out of hours and they were not done. By their third store, they had already worked out some story about shopping for a few families at the same time, for whenever a cashier threw them a look about the number of identical items they'd buy.

The worst were the checkout lines. It became that the two thieves had worked out a system, observing the speed of turnover with the cashiers to figure out when it would be time for one of them to go wait in line, while the other picked up the last few things. By the time they'd be reunited, it would just about be their turn.

On their fourth return to the hotel, it was becoming very obvious that they were running out of energy, but that they would carry on.

"I think… after the next run we should be done," Quinn nodded to herself, groaning when she saw that the traffic had barely moved since the light had turned green, and now it was red again. Brittany yawned, looking at the list she had worked up.

"I think so, too," she nodded back.

"It's a good thing you're doing," Quinn had told her with a smile.

"We're all doing it," Brittany pointed out.

"No, I know, but it was still your idea. We wouldn't have thought about it if not for you."

"We're all doing our parts," Brittany still wouldn't take the credit.

"Like always," Quinn smirked. "Trinity at work." Brittany laughed, looking like she'd gotten some of her energy back.

"We should do things like this more often."

"We should," Quinn agreed. "We're helping these kids, but there are so many more out there who could use it. We can only do so much."

"It shouldn't stop us from doing that," Brittany was briefly brought down, but then climbed back up with optimism. "Now come on, it's right up there," she pointed.

They had gone to two more stores, and then they were done. The stores had closed. They had gotten everything they could hope to get, and now they were bound back for the hotel. When they arrived, they found Santana had already taken it upon herself to organize the various piles of toys and games to make sure they didn't get mixed up later. Brittany and Quinn had handed her the last bags before taking a prompt nosedive on to the beds.

"Hey, come on, it's not time for sleep yet," Santana tried to raise them.

"We've been running around in this weather for hours, shopping, dealing with some very stressed out parents. You've been here. Give us a minute," Quinn dictated, pointing in her general direction.

"Would it help if I said I've called in for pizza?"

"How many?" Brittany called from her bed.

"Two," Santana told her.

"Wake us up when they get here," she grumbled back.

Santana had gone down to get the pizzas when they arrived, rather than having the delivery boy come up and see the amounts of games and toys and start to wonder what they were all up to. Returning to the room, all it had taken was for the scent to reach their noses and the sleeping aching shoppers were up and ready to eat.

"I've got the van rental. Tomorrow morning we need to get up and wrap all of these. Did you get the paper?"

"Paper, ribbons, bows, cards, and scissors and tape, we didn't forget," Quinn promised.

"What about your other thing, the favor you called in that you won't tell us about?" Santana asked, and Quinn smirked.

"It's in the works."

TO BE CONTINUED (MONDAY)


	3. The Take

**"Christmas Future"**

**3. The Take**

It was Christmas Eve already, the snow was falling as fervently as it had for days, and in the comfort of their hotel room, Quinn, Santana, and Brittany were locked in their very own private workshop. There were games and times piled all around them, and every last bit had to be wrapped and topped with ribbons, bows, and cards, before they could pack them into the rental van and set out on the final step of this impromptu mission. They were going to make these perfect, no matter how long it took.

"You did take the price tags off, right?" Quinn asked the others, slicing lengths of paper and fitting them to boxes. "The last thing we need is to have to unwrap everything and remove a price tag."

"Relax, it's not the first time we've wrapped presents," Santana gave her a frown.

"It's too bad we're not back home, I had presents for you guys," Brittany frowned, too, tearing off a piece of tape to fasten the sides of the paper covered in smiling reindeer.

"We would have been home by now if it wasn't for the storm," Santana nodded.

"We'll get them when we get there. It's not the presents that matter, is it?" Quinn looked on to her friends.

"It's not? Well, you should have said that before we did all this," Santana pointed around the room full of presents for the children, and Quinn smirked.

"You know what I mean. I wouldn't want to spend my Christmas with anyone else but you two."

"Ah, well," Santana conceded a smile.

"It is our Christmas, isn't it?" Brittany thought about it before looking to the television on the wall. "I wonder if they have any Christmas movies on here we can watch. It'll make things more interesting."

As she'd hoped, they had found a sufficient listing of holiday movies to keep them entertained as slowly but surely their load of purchases was covered in brightly colored paper and ribbons and bows. A call to room service had brought them their Christmas dinner, though it had meant being crafty in hiding everything from sight when it was delivered.

Santana had been the first of them to finish eating, and when she was done she went right back to wrapping the many gifts. Watching her sit back to work there, both Quinn and Brittany couldn't help but wonder if maybe she had hurried herself through eating so she could get back to the wrapping. They could appreciate wanting to make sure they would be done in time, but they had a feeling that wasn't the reason, not for this. Quinn had given Brittany a look, and the other blonde had nodded back before getting up to join her girlfriend, sitting on the ground.

"You didn't have to start again right away, you know?" Brittany told her.

"What, I was done," Santana shrugged.

"I know, but…"

"We have to leave in a few hours. You saw how the roads were out there," Santana pointed out the window.

"No, yeah, I get it." She was quiet now, picking up another toy and a roll of paper. She knew enough about Santana to know when she could still push on and when she was better off backing away for a time. So she backed away, continuing to wrap.

Maybe it was all these toys around her, and the children those toys were for, and the movies, and everything else together, but Santana had started to think about the future, her future. One day, she knew she would want a normal life, a family… children of her own. It seemed to change at times. She knew there had been a time in her life when she'd sworn she'd never be a mother, but that was then. She was getting older, not old, but older, and then this question had popped into her head.

Would she ever get to have that life? She had Brittany, and she hoped to have her for so many more years, to have that family in her dreams with her. But then they had made Trinity their life. How long would they carry this on before they couldn't do it anymore, or they didn't want to anymore, or they got caught… What if they missed their chance? What if something happened to them?

Brittany was sitting next to her now, wrapping toys quietly, and Santana knew she was doing her thing, her 'I'll be quiet now and let you sulk' thing. After a few minutes, Santana had let out a breath, laying her hand atop Brittany's. When the blonde had looked up, she'd leaned in and kissed her.

"Merry Christmas," she smiled. Brittany had smiled back, looking back to the bow in her other hand, which she'd been about to stick on the completed wrapping, and pressing it to Santana's forehead, which made her smirk, tilting her head.

"Merry Christmas," Brittany told her.

"So I'm your present, is that it?" Santana asked and got a nod. "Well then you'll have to unwrap me, won't you?" Not too far off, as much as she tried not to listen in, Quinn cleared her throat. "Later," Santana amended.

Once they were all three of them back on task, they had focused on working their way through the ever shrinking not-yet-wrapped pile, and at last they finished.

"Right. We have time for one more movie, and then we really need to go if we're going to make it on time," Quinn declared.

"Home Alone. Can we watch Home Alone?" Brittany asked.

"Sounds good. So long as Quinn doesn't complain about how incompetent the thieves are the whole time," Santana teased.

"I wouldn't do that," Quinn defended herself, though it was hardly fault for them to think she would do this. Now the only difference would be that she'd do it in her head.

Soon, it would be time at last to move into the final phase. Making sure that the hotel staff didn't notice them as they did this, the three women had carried the wrapped presents down from their room and loaded them into the rental van. Then they had checked out, and like they'd never been, they were gone.

TO BE CONCLUDED (WEDNESDAY)


	4. To All A Good Night

_ETA: Sorry for the delay!_

**"Christmas Future"**

**4. To All a Good Night**

It was nothing short of a miracle of the days, at least to them, that they had found the journey from the city into the small town where the children's home had burned was relatively clear. They didn't lament this early arrival one bit. If anything, it gave them time to really figure out how they would do this. Some of the children had been relocated to temporary homes, if they hadn't been so injured, while the others were set in the hospital.

"I've got floor plans," Santana had announced.

"How did you manage that?" Brittany asked.

"Skills," she'd shrugged back, though she did smirk privately.

"Wait for me here for a second, I need to make a call," Quinn had told them before stepping out from the back of the van.

"Who are you calling at… Oh," Santana remembered Quinn's 'surprise.' She still wouldn't tell them what it was. When she returned, she looked happy.

"I'm driving," she declared, and just like that, they were off to encounter Quinn's surprise.

The client they had not taken payment from was just one of the people who had taken their services and bit them farewell with those magical words of 'if you ever need anything.' Some of them had been all of theirs, but some of them, like the man they'd come to meet, had been entirely Quinn's, from the days before the three of them were a unit. Immediately, the thing that struck Santana and Brittany was that the man didn't look unlike a gentle grandfather. He wasn't gigantic, but he did have a roundness to him.

"It's Santa…" Brittany had breathed before she could help it.

'Santa' was in fact a man called Peter Wallace. Quinn had once retrieved several pieces of art created by his late daughter, and when he'd received them, with absolute gratitude, he had told her that he would help her if she ever needed him. When she'd called him and asked if he would brave the roads – as he lived in the next state over – and come take on the role of the man in the red suit, she had assured him that he was in no way obligated, but he had accepted right away. What better way to spend his Christmas than by bringing joy to children? He had even brought the suit himself. They were ready.

In the morning, when the children would wake, in whichever place they had been taken after the fire, they would find neatly wrapped presents, with their names printed on cards and everything, waiting by their bedsides. With absolute wonder they would discover that Santa had not forgotten them, despite their sudden relocation.

They did not know how those presents came to be where they found them, at least if they'd slept through the night. If they had been awakened by his passage, and some of them had been, they would have seen that the presents had been delivered by him, just as he said.

Wherever they'd needed to go, the task had been straightforward enough. While they would help bring both the presents and old Santa Claus to them, the three women would stand back, hidden from sight, while Mr. Wallace went from bed to bed, placing the toys and the games where they belonged.

When one little girl who'd been put up at the hospital had opened her eyes and seen him, the first child who did wake, Quinn, Santana, and Brittany, had briefly held their breaths from their hiding place. But their Santa did not disappoint. He'd crouched at the girl's bedside, let her touch his beard, which was absolutely real, and she laughed and embraced him. Right then, they knew they had done exactly what needed to be done. Tucked back in to her bed by Santa, the girl had closed her eyes, smiling peacefully.

There had been a few near misses, where they'd almost been caught. Mr. Wallace was not exactly young and eased with sneaking in and out of places. But they had made it through, and within a few hours, all the presents the trio had taken time to neatly wrap had been delivered. Their Santa was off the clock, and he had gone on his way, disappearing as he should. They would need to do the same.

By the time they'd driven the van back to the city, they could hear on the news about how presents had been delivered to the children from the burned down home. No one knew how they'd arrived there, although a handful of children had sworn it was Santa Claus at work. They wouldn't know this, of course, not them; they were never there, never seen.

At last, they had been able to get a flight bound for home in New York. The items they had shipped out had reached their client, as confirmed, and everything was settled. But as they'd stood there at the ticket counter, while the woman there booked their seats for New York, it hadn't felt right, and after a moment, they had changed their mind: they were going to Ohio.

"Merry Christmas," Quinn had told Santana and Brittany as they waited for their plane to take off.

"Merry Christmas," they'd both replied.

"I can't wait to see the look on my mother's face when we show up," Santana smiled.

"I wonder if they're showing a Christmas movie in flight," Brittany looked at the small screen ahead of her.

"Forget it, you know you're going to fall asleep as soon as we're off," Santana pointed out. "And we all earned some shut eye, don't you think?"

As she had predicted, they had spent most of the flight asleep. The dreams they'd have would be as good as any dreams could ever be. They loved what they did, loved what they got to do, as part of Trinity, but sometimes, like that Christmas, maybe they could be so much more, like Santa's helpers.

THE END


End file.
